Ex-Rotherham Council deputy leader named as politician ‘involved in ‘no prosecution’ deal with alleged child abuser’

A politician accused of being involved in a ‘no prosecution’ deal for an alleged child abuser has been named in court as Jahangir Akhtar, a former deputy leader of Rotherham Council.

Sheffield Crown Court heard further details about an alleged incident involving Mr Akhtar and a now-deceased police officer referred to as ‘PC Ali’ in which they are said to have brokered a deal for defendant Arshid Hussain to hand over a missing teenage girl at a petrol station in exchange for not being arrested.

A jury had earlier been told the girl - one of 12 complainants in the case - fell pregnant when she was 15 and had a child which Hussain accepts is his. But his barrister Stephen Uttley said his client had first met the alleged victim in a nightclub when she had told him she was 18.

The now 30-year-old woman, known as Girl J, said she had been twice made pregnant by Hussain. She said the first time was when she was 14 and he persuaded her to have an abortion by saying he would be sent to prison if she had the baby.

Cross-examining, Mr Uttley said he wished to ask the woman questions about ‘Jahangir Akhtar and the petrol station’ after she made allegations a Rotherham councillor called ‘Akhtar’ had been involved in the deal.

The woman, who said she regularly used to run away from home to be with Hussain, said on one occasion Hussain had rung PC Ali from a phone box after she had been reported missing and he then took her to a petrol station.

The woman said: “When we got to the petrol station, I remember a lot of police officers being there and Akhtar and Ash got told to fetch me back and he would not get done.”

She added: “Before we got to the petrol station, he [Ash] said Akhtar had rung him saying he had to take me home.”

Mr Uttley said PC Ali ‘was tragically killed earlier last year’ so could not be asked about what happened.

The woman said: “I did my statement before that happened so they [the police] could have had a chance to question him.”

Mr Uttley said examinations of PC Ali’s police notebook had shown no record of the incident.

He said the woman had contacted the Independent Police Complaints Commission about PC Ali.

Mr Uttley said one of her complaints was that PC Ali had given her a photo of Arshid Hussain taken from the police database.

She said Hussain had been threatening her and she wanted the picture to give to her child’s nursery so staff would recognise him if he turned up.

The woman said she also had phone conversations with Mr Akhtar in around 2006 or 2007 when she wanted to contact Hussain in relation to their child.

Mr Uttley suggested these phone conversations were the extent of her contact with him.

She said: “No, I met him at the petrol station. That is how I knew who he were - otherwise how did I know how to contact him?”